Returns of shares: India withholds payment of billions of rupees to Pakistanis

The Indian government has denied payment of billions of rupees to 18,560 Pakistanis, accumulated on returns of shares they had bought in Indian firms before 1965. India had seized such shares, bought by Pakistanis in 558 Indian companies, after the 1965 war.

Now, these shares are lying with the Office of Custodian of Enemy Properties under the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs following a notification issued by Indian government in 1968.

The Indian government is undecided about the fate of these shares of Pakistanis. Media reports, citing the record of the department, said that the capitalised amount of five shareholders in Indian companies is about Rs 109.6 billion. These companies are the high-profile Indian entities--Wipro, Cipla, five companies of Tata group, ACC and three companies of the DCM group.

Similarly, according to the data, two Pakistani stakeholders have 10 million shares of Wipro, the world's largest independent R&D services provider, valuing about Rs 50.4 billion. Thirty-four Pakistanis have shares in pharmaceutical major, Cipla, worth Rs 48.2 billion. In four companies of Tata Motors--Tata Power, Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals and Tata Coffee--Pakistanis have shares worth Rs 48 million.

Pakistanis invested in Indian companies, including Hindustan Unilever, ITC DLF, Bajaj Electricals, CSCE, Reliance Energies, EIH, Aditya Birla, Nuvo, India Cement, Dalmia Cement and Ballarpur Industries before 1965.

According to the assessment of the Custodian office, the value of the shares owned by Pakistanis in the listed 45 Indian companies is Rs 18 billion.

The Hindi edition of India's paper 'The Economic Times', while contesting the figures of the Custodian department, said that Pakistanis have far more shares in the companies than revealed by the Custodians.

The custodians have recorded 1.66 million Pakistani shares in Wipro. But, company sources say there are 10 million Pakistani shares. Similarly, there are 23 million shares of Pakistanis in Cipla, but the custodian has recorded just 1.1 million, the paper added.